\n
The Saga\u2019s Fugue<\/p>\n
By Kate Chamberlin<\/p>\n
June 20, 2002<\/i><\/p>\n
\n
\u00a0\u00a0 The shrill, urgent trill of the tree toad cuts through the soothing pat-pat-pitty-pat of the gentle, soaking spring rain as the thunder\u2019s low rumbling in the distance, underscores nature\u2019s fugue.<\/p>\n
The shrill, urgent trill of the telephone cuts through the familiar pattern of day-to-day chores, as the threat of unemployment or disability underscores life\u2019s saga.<\/p>\n
The harsh announcement that I have cancer,\u00a0\u00a0 sends shock waves through my complacency, as panic and horror underscore my fragile existence.<\/p>\n
\u201cBasil Cell Carcinoma,\u201d the dermatologist assures me, \u201cis the least serious of the known cancers and it is the most treatable.\u201d<\/p>\n
Still, the mention of cancer reminds me of how my mother was consumed by a cancer of undetermined origin, in 1996. I suspect, these days, they\u2019d be able to specifically determine the original site of the cancer (breast, uterine, kidney, liver…), but it doesn\u2019t alter the fact that she died at the age of 59 of cancer and it scares me.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe damage was done,\u201d the dermatologist continued, \u201cmany years ago before you were 16-years old, so there is no telling where the next patch will occur. Each location on your body, where sunburn occurred, might turn up a tumor. The shape and feel of it will be different on the different locations. There is no one feel or look to basil cell carcinoma.\u201d<\/p>\n
I think of my sons playing tennis on wonderful sunny days coming home red from the sun and exertion and how much they enjoyed sand volley ball at Ontario Beach. My daughter enjoyed sun-bathing along-side our new pool, glowing with the newly acquired tan. When I was young, I did it too.<\/p>\n
My parents would golf as my brother and I played tennis and swam at the club before meeting them for dinner. I was on the swimming and diving teams in high school and was the apartment complex\u2019s life guard during graduate school. It felt free and wonderful to bask in the sun with a youthful body. How foolish it all seems now.<\/p>\n
How do you tell today\u2019s youth not to make the same mistakes you made?<\/p>\n
We can\u2019t control most of what happens to us during our life-time. Perhaps the best we can do is to control our attitude about what is happening. How we go from crisis to crisis will determine the quality of our journey through time.<\/p>\n
The nearly painless surgical procedure is behind me, allowing a new complacency to ebb back into my existence, as a deeper comprehension of life underscores my soul.<\/p>\n
The shrill, urgent shrieks of my little ones cut through the familiar pattern of day-to-day chores, as the thread of joy underscores life\u2019s saga.<\/p>\n
The robin\u2019s cheerful cheerio-cheerio adds grace notes to the soothing pat-pat-pitty-pat of the gentle, soaking spring rain as the strengthening sun\u2019s rays illuminate a brilliant rainbow to underscore nature\u2019s fugue.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
NOTE:\u00a0 This first appeared in my weekly newspaper column Cornucopia, Wayne County STAR, June 20, 2002<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
The Saga\u2019s Fugue<\/p>\n
By Kate Chamberlin<\/p>\n
June 20, 2002<\/i><\/p>\n
\n
\u00a0\u00a0 The shrill, urgent trill of the tree toad cuts through the soothing pat-pat-pitty-pat of the gentle, soaking spring rain as the thunder\u2019s low rumbling in the distance, underscores nature\u2019s fugue.<\/p>\n
The shrill, urgent trill of the telephone cuts through the familiar pattern of day-to-day chores, as the threat of unemployment or disability underscores life\u2019s saga.<\/p>\n
The harsh announcement that I have cancer,\u00a0\u00a0 sends shock waves through my complacency, as panic and horror underscore my fragile existence.<\/p>\n
\u201cBasil Cell Carcinoma,\u201d the dermatologist assures me, \u201cis the least serious of the known cancers and it is the most treatable.\u201d<\/p>\n
Still, the mention of cancer reminds me of how my mother was consumed by a cancer of undetermined origin, in 1996. I suspect, these days, they\u2019d be able to specifically determine the original site of the cancer (breast, uterine, kidney, liver…), but it doesn\u2019t alter the fact that she died at the age of 59 of cancer and it scares me.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe damage was done,\u201d the dermatologist continued, \u201cmany years ago before you were 16-years old, so there is no telling where the next patch will occur. Each location on your body, where sunburn occurred, might turn up a tumor. The shape and feel of it will be different on the different locations. There is no one feel or look to basil cell carcinoma.\u201d<\/p>\n
I think of my sons playing tennis on wonderful sunny days coming home red from the sun and exertion and how much they enjoyed sand volley ball at Ontario Beach. My daughter enjoyed sun-bathing along-side our new pool, glowing with the newly acquired tan. When I was young, I did it too.<\/p>\n
My parents would golf as my brother and I played tennis and swam at the club before meeting them for dinner. I was on the swimming and diving teams in high school and was the apartment complex\u2019s life guard during graduate school. It felt free and wonderful to bask in the sun with a youthful body. How foolish it all seems now.<\/p>\n
How do you tell today\u2019s youth not to make the same mistakes you made?<\/p>\n
We can\u2019t control most of what happens to us during our life-time. Perhaps the best we can do is to control our attitude about what is happening. How we go from crisis to crisis will determine the quality of our journey through time.<\/p>\n
The nearly painless surgical procedure is behind me, allowing a new complacency to ebb back into my existence, as a deeper comprehension of life underscores my soul.<\/p>\n
The shrill, urgent shrieks of my little ones cut through the familiar pattern of day-to-day chores, as the thread of joy underscores life\u2019s saga.<\/p>\n
The robin\u2019s cheerful cheerio-cheerio adds grace notes to the soothing pat-pat-pitty-pat of the gentle, soaking spring rain as the strengthening sun\u2019s rays illuminate a brilliant rainbow to underscore nature\u2019s fugue.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
NOTE:\u00a0 This first appeared in my weekly newspaper column Cornucopia, Wayne County STAR, June 20, 2002<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
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The Saga\u2019s Fugue By Kate Chamberlin June 20, 2002 \u00a0\u00a0 The shrill, urgent trill of the tree toad cuts through the soothing pat-pat-pitty-pat of the gentle, soaking spring rain as the thunder\u2019s low rumbling in the distance, underscores nature\u2019s fugue. The shrill, urgent trill of the telephone cuts through the familiar pattern of day-to-day chores, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-888","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/katechamberlin.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/888","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/katechamberlin.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/katechamberlin.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/katechamberlin.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/katechamberlin.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=888"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/katechamberlin.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/888\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":890,"href":"https:\/\/katechamberlin.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/888\/revisions\/890"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/katechamberlin.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=888"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/katechamberlin.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=888"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/katechamberlin.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=888"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}